[RedRocket]

Hey all. I have been planning to try out a ceramic coating on an OEM head pipe to see what kind of a heat reduction can be had. It is not that I feel the 2014's head pipe heat is necessarily a problem but if I could reduce the heat, all the better. I was not interested in wrapping the pipe as wraps can retain moisture and ultimately cause oxidation issues. Both my original head pipe and new OEM head pipe have a bung welded on for an O2 sensor.

So I ordered a new OEM head pipe, which took a bit of time to receive. Had a bung welded on. I then sent the pipe off to jet-hot for their chrome ceramic coating. I went with the chrome coating as they informed me that had the best, overall heat reduction. Took about a 1 month turn-around for me to receive back my jet-hot ceramic coated head pipe. It's been sitting next to my desk staring back at me for a couple of months now while I find the time to swap out the pipe.

I finally found some time to do the swap. First thing I did is made sure and got my Grizz up to operating temp on Friday where the ambient temp was at 55f. I have a laser temp device, took a reading on the original head pipe right at the bend, 825f was the temp. I waited until later that night, when the engine had cooled down, and shot both head stud nuts with some PB Blaster.

Yesterday I went ahead and swapped out the head pipe and did some general inspections for the upcoming riding season. Removing the original head pipe was pretty straight forward and surprisingly to me, the two nuts came off easily. The item I was not anticipating was the OEM clamps used to hold the heat shields in place. Those are not difficult to remove, but good luck trying to reuse those clamps... they are a serious PITA. I futz'd around with those for too long trying to get them to restart and I finally jumped in the car and went to the local Ace. I purchased 3 new stainless steel clamps and used those instead.

Exhaust springs. When I removed my 07 exhaust, I went the hard route and used pliers to remove the exhaust springs but that was a struggle. This time did a quick search on youtube and found a very easy way to remove the springs with a 4 foot section of paracord rope. Springs went back on easily with the method as well.

I got everything installed and then started her up, looking for any exhaust leaks, none. So I then proceeded to wrap everything up, all plastics back on. So now was the time for understanding what difference I was going to see, if any at all. Ambient temp was 52f so only a few degrees lower than Friday. I warmed her up nicely, just like before, and then ran her up and down the street for a bit. Ran her hard up my driveway and jumped off and grabbed my laser temp reader: 305f! I tried to mimic everything exactly like I did on Friday when I got my baseline temp reading.

Call me thoroughly impressed with the heat reduction from the ceramic coating, it really does quite a job on the heat emitted from the pipe. Yes, I would have preferred the ambient temp was also 55f but I can't believe that was going to make a significant difference in the temp reading of the ceramic coated pipe.

 

[JimP]

On a diesel truck forum that I am on quite a few owners would have the exhaust down pipe coated and would see similar results.

The ceramic coating keeps the heat where it belongs, in the exhaust pipe.

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[Rob-c]

No doubt it works well , back when we were drag racing a few buddies had their headers done. Curious what was the price for getting it coated ?

 

[JD864]

Great info and thread! I was investigating this also, but the costs scared me away. Seems like the quote I had was 2-3x’s the cost of the header? It’s been a while, and I don’t exactly remember. I may do something over the next year.
Any thought on the DIY versions?

 

[RedRocket]

Price was $125 for the ceramic coating on the brand new head pipe. That is what I was quoted but they do state a final evaluation is done when they receive the part, which is fair. You ship to them, they return ship the item, well packaged.

I did not look into DIY for that so no idea about it.

 

[Blmpkn]

I really wouldn't worry about wrap "holding moisture" and rotting the header away, especially if the machine lives its life in the garage/shed/trailer when it's not being ridden.

Even if you completely submerge the wrapped header while riding... think about just how hot that header gets.... Definitely hot enough to dry itself out long before you get back to the truck.

DEI sells a silicone sealer spray for their wrap as well, the sealer is more for keeping oil and stuff off/out of the wrap so it won't catch fire on you... but it'll keep water from soaking it just as well.

 

[CanadianKodiak700]

I really wouldn't worry about wrap "holding moisture" and rotting the header away, especially if the machine lives its life in the garage/shed/trailer when it's not being ridden.

Even if you completely submerge the wrapped header while riding... think about just how hot that header gets.... Definitely hot enough to dry itself out long before you get back to the truck.

DEI sells a silicone sealer spray for their wrap as well, the sealer is more for keeping oil and stuff off/out of the wrap so it won't catch fire on you... but it'll keep water from soaking it just as well.

That's what you would think, that it would get hot enough to dry out, but it actually doesn't. It dries the inner wraps, but it insulates itself enough to allow the outer wraps to stay wet for much longer time. We used to wrap the head pipe on the old 3 wheelers, they would get cherry red and easily hit your leg on it.
They were right out in the open and the outside of the wrap would get lots of air while driving, yet get home and park, it would still drip water out of the wrap on the garage floor. And it would soak through the inner lawyers and lay wet against the pipe, usually until you fire it up again and run it hit for a while. Wrapped head pips would rot out much faster than bare pipes.

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